This invention relates to a storage apparatus for identifiable single articles, capable of being chosen singly at random, particularly storage containers, and comprising at least one conveyor, a receiving station, and a delivery station.
Storage apparatus of the aforedescribed type are known in the field in varying constructions, and such known apparatus are furnished with various conveyor devices in which case large storage needs require a very large space. Furthermore, storage apparatus capable of accepting large amounts of goods and having great density of storage have the disadvantage of requiring a large access or retrieval time.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a storage apparatus, for instance an intermediate storage for industrial production flow, having a high capacity and a high storage density concurrent with relatively short access or retrieval times, and facilitating a simple surveyable feed and issue processes as well as storage processes adapted to be controlled by a computer.
This objective is achieved according to the present invention by providing a storage apparatus having an endless circulating conveyor which, in at least on one plane, is formed in loops, lying parallel in generally side-by-side relationships, and which include a plurality of take-out devices, such take-out devices being located at the frontal or inner arcs of the loops and being operatively associated with the delivery stations.
Thus the area of storage is determined by an endlessly circulating conveyor, which may be formed in any desired conventional form, for instance as a belt conveyor, a chain conveyor or a roll conveyor and which assures that the complete contents of the storage apparatus is continually moved while delivering the goods. This movement provides, together with one-way characteristics of the conveyor, an exceedingly simple and easily surveyable condition for receiving goods or articles because one single receiving station may be utilized to feed the entire storage apparatus.
Although such a conveyor consisting of loops disposed in side-by-side relationships in a sinuous manner covers most of the area and needs minimal space for its construction proper, the resulting density of storage does not cause large access or retrieval time despite the resulting storage density even at large filling rates of the apparatus. The individual articles are located at storage sites along the conveyor, and the conveyor brings all the storage sites after a limited time to the frontal side of the loops, the time being a function of the sequence of the storage sites.
Each loop is preferably furnished with a take-out device at its front, although of course, when no immediate delivery is desired, only part of the loops may be furnished with take-out devices.
Basically the storage apparatus may be built in its simplest embodiment upon one plane only. However, for higher storage capacities, a conveyor may be provided which runs through a plurality of planes lying one above the other. In such a case the loops may be built congruently in all planes and run in identical directions. This leads to a very simple support construction and drive mechanism, but will result in relatively long oblique connections between the planes. The planes may also alternatingly be run through in opposite directions resulting in extremely short connections between the planes because the conveyor faces at the ending edge of each plane, the beginning of the next plane simply by moving upwardly or downwardly.
A particular advantage of the apparatus lies in the possibility to regulate and coordinate the access according to the take-out devices. Thus the serial order resulting automatically in an endless conveyor makes it possible to identify individual goods according to their position and to expel them when needed. Marked single goods, containers, for example, may basically be taken out once they are identified and their position upon the conveyor is identified, as soon as they have reached the respective position of a take-out device upon the frontal side of the loop. A computer, for instance, is capable of determining the desired take-out time, when the starting position of a part is given and when the running time and running path are evaluated. The computer can also find a stored item wherever it might be upon the apparatus.
Preferably though the apparatus is furnished with readers, allocated to the take-out devices for coding of loaded parts, so that an individual part or a part of a defined kind may be retrieved by using its code and may be ejected by the take-out device whenever such an individual part reaches the take-out device.
Preferably a process control computer may be used for storage of withdrawal demands, for the reading of code numbers, for the choice of a take-out device in the case where a plurality of identical goods can reach a take-out position, and for regulating time or sequence demanded by delivery processes. The process computer may also possess additional control and regulating functions, for instance, control of input and running control of inventory.
Other features which are considered characteristic of the invention are set forth in the appended claims.
Although the invention is illustrated and described in relationship to specific embodiments, it is nevertheless not intended to be limited to the details shown, since various modifications and structural changes may be made therein without departing from the spirit of the invention and within the scope and range of equivalents of the claims.
The construction and operation of the invention, however, together with additional objects and advantages thereof will be best understood from the following description of specific embodiments when read in connection with the accompanying drawings.